Marriage To Christians And Jews

By Justice Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani with an annotation by Ustaaz, Ahmed Fazel Ebrahim Marriage with Christian and Jewish females or males Q. " When it comes to marrying a Christian or a Jewish females or males, Muslim youths argue that the Holy Qur'an has allowed such a marriage. Since we are living in the midst of Jews and Christians, we need to know the correct and precise Islamic position in this respect." (Dr. Zakaullah, New York) A. The Holy Qur'an has never allowed Muslim females to marry non-Muslim males, no matter whether he is a Christian, Jewish, Hindu or a Parci. However, the Holy Qur'an has allowed Muslim males to marry Christian or Jewish females. Two important points should always be kept in mind in this respect: 1. Muslim males are only allowed to marry Christian and Jewish women. No female of any other religion or belief is halaal for a Muslim. Woman who are Christian or Jewish only by their names, and do not actually believe in any religion, like a large number of people in the western countries, cannot be termed as "Ahl-ul-Kitaab" (people of the book). They are mostly atheists and the Shari’ah does not permit marriage to women who have atheistic beliefs. 2. The Shari’ah has allowed Muslim males to marry a Christian or a Jewish female only where there is no apprehension that the husband or his children may come under her influence in religious matters.1 In the early days of the Islamic history every Muslim was duly equipped with adequate knowledge of his religion and had an unshaken commitment to Islamic principles. Therefore, there was no apprehension that he would be misled by any foreign influence. Rather, he was supposed to convince his wife in religious issues. Therefore, if a Muslim is fully confident that his marriage with a 1

Footnote by Ustaaz, Ahmed Fazel Ebrahim: The Qur’anic allowance in regard to marriage with females of the Christian and Jewish religion is a general ruling without any exclusions or conditional clauses related to the absence of any fear regarding the male spouse or his children from becoming subject to the female’s religion. Since the term Shari’ah entails the wider understanding of Islam, and the narrations in the work Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaibah, to which reference is made, refer to abstention from such marriages if there is fear of losing your Islamic identity, therefore Mufti Taqi says that the Shari’ah has conditionally allowed such marriages. Mufti Taqi does not deny the Qur’anic allowance. Rather, he contextualizes the historical position of the Sahabah to contemporary times and questions the strength of the Islamic identity of the Muslim male who intends such a marriage. His reasoning to contextualization becomes necessary, especially, in non-Muslim countries where the rules of guardianship, custody and maintenance violate Islamic teachings. There have been many cases where Muslim males have lost custody of their children. These cases are not only divorce cases, but also in instances where the children were born illegitimately in terms of Islamic Law. Such children, in most or all cases, ultimately become the followers of other faiths. The issue becomes more serious when we consider that even a Christian or Jewish female who resides in an Islamic country is likely to hold the passport and citizenship of another country which would allow her legal rights in terms of such a nationality or citizenship.

Christian or a Jewish girl will never affect his religious life and that of his children, then there is no bar against such a marriage. If he is not so confident, he must avoid marrying a non-Muslim female. Even in the days of the Sahabah (the Companions of the Holy Prophet (Sallalaahu Alaihi Wasallam)) some people were not advised to marry Christian or the Jewish females for this very reason. (See 158:2/4, Musannif Ibn Abi Shaibah)